Saturday, December 10, 2011

For my Stamp Clubs this month, we are, of course, making Christmas cards!

This adorable singing mouse is made from punches. I rolled the music note wheel across the card in a curving motion. The "Joy" is from The Sounding Joy stamp set. Such a cute mousie!

This next card was designed by Lorna Raczynski, and uses the Spirelli technique. I used Perfect Plum and glossy white cardtsock for this one. The Lace stamp is stamped in VersaMark and embossed with white embossing powder before sponging Perfect Plum ink around and on top of it.

This card was designed by a demonstrator in my upline's group, and I'm so sorry, but I can't remember who made it! But I love the designer paper Christmas tree! It's made by using a half-circle of paper and folding it back and forth. The ribbon is a piece of Wild Wasabi grosgrain cut in half.

This final card is a gift card holder that I learned how to make at my upline, Winona Semler's, meeting. It's made with a long envelope folded in half. Super cute and easy to make!

Sunday, November 20, 2011

I mentioned yesterday that one of my stamp clubs was making some Christmas cards. Well, my other stamp club decided that instead of having a hostess for November and placing orders, they wanted to make this adorable Mini Muffin Tin Advent Calendar that I learned from Christy Harsch.

When I showed them the tin a few months ago, they were very excited to make it, so this is what we did last Thursday.

It uses tons of punches and die cuts, and it features the very cute 25 & Counting stamp set with the Frostwood Lodge suite.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Well, my house is all decorated for Christmas as of today. My boys had a blast decorating the tree while we blasted Christmas music through the house! So now I'm in a very Christmas-y mood! I'm very excited about stamp club for the next two months because we get to make so many holiday cards! One of my Stamp Clubs is making these cute Christmas cards/projects this month.

This first item is an adorable little purse that I learned from Lorna Raczynski. It's filled with some chocolate treats, and it's the perfect size for holding a gift card! I used the Holly Berry Bouquet suite to make this one.

This next card is a telescoping card. As soon as I saw the tutorial for this on Splitcoast Stampers, I had to try it! I used the Christmas Lodge stamp set with the Frostwood Lodge designer series paper. Some Fire Circle brads finish it off.

The final card is this Christmas ribbon flower card. It didn't photograph as well as I would have liked - it looks way better in real life! I used the Cherry Cobbler striped grosgrain ribbon to create the flower by using a basting stitch with some white baker's twine along one side of the ribbon. Then pull the twine tight so the ribbon loops up. I then stitched it shut at the back and ran the twine up through the center, pulled it through the button, and knotted it at the back. There is a second piece of ribbon wrapped around the main part of the card. To finish it off, I used the Pines & Poinsettias set to stamp a greeting, added a Vintage Tag and some First Edition designer series paper cut with the Top Note die and stamped with the En Francais background stamp.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

This is a wedding card I created for one of my former students, who got married last weekend! Congratulations, Melanie and Brennan!

I wanted to keep it simple and elegant. I embossed some Whisper White cardstock with the Elegant Bouquet embossing folder, then I sponged Platinum Shimmer Paint over the raised images. I added some Rhinestone Jewels to the centers of the flowers after I layered it onto some Brushed Silver cardstock. I embossed the sentiment from Word Play in silver and added a little Rhinestone Jewel to the diamond image on "do". Finally, I adhered it all to the Whisper White card base before tying some Whisper White Organza Ribbon around the whole thing. The wrapping paper I used for their gift was silver and white, so it matched perfectly!

Thursday, October 6, 2011

This is the layout my Scrapbook Club will be making next week. I will admit that I totally CASEd this. I'm afraid I don't know who to give credit to, as it was on display at a Stampin' Up! event hosted by Christy Harsch, and there were several demonstrators who had projects displayed.

I love how this layout showcases the Spice Cake suite, including the jumbo buttons and designer series paper.

Monday, September 26, 2011

This is a card I made for a wedding shower for a girl at our church who is getting married. I haven't made a lot of shower cards, so this one came together slowly, piece by piece!

I started by choosing Pink Pirouette and Brushed Silver as my main colours. Then I got out my Always Elegant and En Francais stamp sets. I stamped En Francais in Pink Pirouette and then embossed the flourish-y thing in silver over top of that. The silver background is embossed with the Finial Press embossing folder. I punched the side of the Pink Pirouette layer with the Scallop Border punch. It still needed more, so I threaded some Very Vanilla taffeta ribbon through it.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Have I told you how much I love my job? Who else gets paid to scrapbook and make cards and meet amazing, wonderful ladies who have become great friends?

Have you been thinking you'd like to join the Stampin' Up! family - to earn extra money and/or be able to get your own supplies at a discount? I have an amazing offer for you: Because I went to Stampin' Up!'s Regional event, I am able to offer you a FREE stamp set from the upcoming Occasions Mini Catalogue with your purchase of the starter kit! Simply click here to sign up, or contact me for more details. This offer is valid until October 2 to Canadian residents.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

This is a card I made for a Holiday Mini swap I'm participating in with my upline, Winona's, group.

I was inspired to use this paper weaving technique by this cute card by Noelle. I used the Spice Cake designer series paper, cut it into 1/2" strips and wove it together. Then I added some Early Espresso quilted satin ribbon with sticky strip. I finished that part with a Regals flower button.

For the greeting part, I stamped the leaves from Gently Falling (my new favourite stamp set!) in River Rock and More Mustard with Early Espresso for the outlines, then cut them out. The greeting is stamped from Teeny Tiny Wishes and punched out with the Modern Label punch. I also stamped the leaf over the greeting piece for some texture. I tied some hemp twine through the sentiment piece, then attached the leaves and sentiment together with a mini clothespin. I attached the whole piece to the card with Stampin' Dimensionals.

Friday, September 2, 2011

I'm feeling very Christmas-y and it's only September! I LOVE, love, love the combination of Real Red and Wild Wasabi that is very trendy this year!

I was inspired to create this card based on a Christmas box project that Stampin' Up! gave to all demonstrators who signed up in July or who had someone sign up with them in July. I was fortunate to have someone join my team, so I got the box! It is absolutely gorgeous, and I wanted to make a card to match.

I tried out the Embedded Image technique on the Top Note piece. I used the First Editions dsp, stamped it with En Francais in Real Red, covered it with VersaMark and embossed it in clear embossing powder. Then I stamped the branches from Christmas Lodge in VersaMark and embossed them with Wild Wasabi embossing powder.

For the ribbon rosette, I sewed along one edge of the Real Red striped grosgrain ribbon with linen thread and pulled it tight to create the flower. I attached this to the card with a pop-up glue dot. The sentiment piece is copied directly from the Christmas box project using the Pines & Poinsettias stamp set.

I'm going to try not to overdose on Christmas cards before November this year, but I can't help myself!

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

How gorgeous is the Spice Cake Suite in the new Holiday Mini Catalogue???

For this Side Step Card, I used the Spice Cake designer series paper and the Gently Falling stamp set. I matched the colours in the dsp to stamp the leaves - Pear Pizzazz, More Mustard and Early Espresso. On the main piece, I used the mat pack and paper piercer and my Early Espresso Stampin' Write Marker to create faux stitching. Then I cut out the leaves and attached them to the piece with a mini clothespin (I just discovered these! How cute!). To finish off, I used the Eyelet border punch on some more dsp, added some hemp twine and an Espresso button.

I think I will be getting a lot of use out of this stamp set and designer series paper (as will my Stamp Club ladies)!

Thursday, August 18, 2011

I've been having lots of fun playing with my new stuff out of the upcoming Holiday Mini Catalogue!

This is a sound card that my Stamp Clubs will be making at our first meeting in September. I know Christmas is a ways away, but I really wanted to try something fancy with the recordable sound cards, and I thought Christmas would be perfect so people can send their loved ones a holiday message!

I used the polished stone technique on glossy white cardstock using Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green, So Saffron and Gold re-inkers. I then used the Oval Scallop Frame with my Big Shot to punch out the oval pieces. The stamped image is from the new Pines & Poinsettias stamp set, stamped in Black Staz-On. I also added some new Dazzling Details glitter glue to bits & pieces of the stamped image.

For the background, I embossed some Brushed Gold cardstock with the Petals-A-Plenty embossing folder and sponged Cherry Cobbler ink all over it. After gluing the scalloped oval piece to this, I added some Cherry Cobbler Quilted Satin Ribbon across the bottom using sticky strip (how gorgeous is this ribbon!?). I finished this off with an antique brad.

Finally I tied some crochet trim around the frame and attached a greeting with some 1/8 Very Vanilla taffeta ribbon. The sentiment is punched with the Modern Label punched and sponged with Soft Suede ink. Then I added the center oval piece with Stampin' Dimensionals. The whole thing was then adhered to a layer of Cherry Cobbler cardstock.

I sponged the edges of the sound card with Cherry Cobbler ink before I glued the card front to it. Here is the inside of the card (also stamped with Pines & Poinsettias in Cherry Cobbler and Soft Suede):

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

This is another birthday card that I made large quantities of. I modified a version that my upline, Winona Semler, made. Hers used the Strength & Hope stamp set with Beyond the Garden designer series paper, and the butterfly image had to be cut out by hand. The card was beautiful, but I really didn't want to cut out all those butterflies, so I used Flight of the Butterfly and punched them out! I also switched out the dsp to Flirtatious and added the Lace Border punched piece in Pretty in Pink. Quick and simple!

Sunday, August 7, 2011

I actually a little bit of time to do some stamping "just for fun" this afternoon! So I just thought I'd play around with my Stampin' Write markers and the Elements of Style set. I rarely do multi-coloured images on large stamps because it takes so long to colour the image with markers (I'm all about quick and easy!), but I took some time today to colour with Marina Mist and Always Artichoke before stamping it on Whisper White. I sponged around the edges with Marina Mist and added some Dazzling Diamonds glitter to the flowers. I layered the stamped piece on some Brushed Silver cardstock and tied some Marina Mist 1/8" ribbon around it. I then popped a light blue rhinestone out of one of my "Ice" brads and adhered it to the ribbon with a mini glue dot. And that's it! Easy-peasy!

Monday, August 1, 2011

I admit that I totally CASEd this card. When I saw this stunning creation by Dayanna Donng, I had to try it. I love the Pink Pirouette with Basic Black - so gorgeous!

The flower from Just Believe and the sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes are embossed with black embossing powder, and the butterflies are cut with the Beautiful Wings embosslits die. Thanks for the beautiful card, Dayanna!

Saturday, July 23, 2011

I'm very sad that my last Scrapbook Club meeting of the year is on Monday. It's always bittersweet when the clubs come to an end. Some ladies will be returning in the fall and some are taking a break for a year, so it's the last time we'll all be together for awhile. (And I love all my ladies!) At our last meeting, the girls requested a Canada Day layout, so here's what I came up with.

I used the Glorious & Free set for this. I made the maple leaf using a cool new technique that I just learned. I'm not sure what it's called, but I stamped the leaf in Real Red, then cut it out. I covered it with Crystal Effects, then put a drop of Real Red ink (from my refill) in the Crystal Effects. I used a toothpick to swirl the ink around, then let it dry. It looks really cool in real life!

The rest of the layout is pretty straight-forward. Here's a list of supplies:

Monday, July 18, 2011

This is a fancier version of the Ice Cream Cone card that my guests made at my new catalogue open house.

This one uses some Pink Pirouette Patterns designer series paper behind the ice cream cone, and I added some new Chocolate Chip scalloped polka dot ribbon. I love how versatile the Cupcake and Petite Pennant punches are!